New 2024 laws set to expand protections for California’s reproductive rights

“As abortions, contraception, and other essential health care continue to be criminalized across the country, California is not backing down,” said state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, on the governor’s website. “These bills further strengthen and expand California’s legal protections for patients, doctors, nurses and everyone involved in providing and dispensing reproductive and gender-affirming care.”

Newsom signed several bills into law this year that will impact women seeking abortion in the state.

• Senate Bill 345 (Skinner) strengthens protections for providers against the enforcement of other state’s laws that criminalize or limit reproductive health care services.

This is perhaps one of the most impactful new laws going into effect in 2024, as it strengthens the state’s “safe haven” laws around abortion rights, essentially protecting California providers who carry out abortions for people from other states where it is not legal.

SB 345 also allows providers or patients to file suit against anyone who interferes with their attempt to obtain, provide or disperse health care that is legally protected in California. It also prohibits bounty hunters from seizing people in California who have left their state to seek an abortion.

• Assembly Bill 1707 (Assemblymember Blanca Pacheco, D-Downey) protects health care providers and facilities in the state from licensing actions against them based on other state laws.

• Assembly Bill 254 (Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, D-Orinda) protects reproductive digital data, such as menstrual cycle apps information, from be shared and designates it as private medical information.

According to Bauer-Kahan, the lack of protections for such information gathered on a person’s private app has left people vulnerable to criminalization and predatory advertising based on their reproductive health choices.

According to the National Institutes of Health, the concern is that information stored in a woman’s period-tracking app could be used against her in court in states that have banned abortions.

• Assembly Bill 352 (Bauer-Kahan) strengthens privacy protections regarding pregnancy loss, abortion and other sensitive services for people traveling to California from other states.

• Assembly Bill 1720 (Bauer-Kahan) requires any facility that offers ultrasounds to be licensed. This means that anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy” centers that offer to take a picture of a person’s fetus so as to deter them from terminating the pregnancy will have to be licensed to do so.

According to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who supported the bill, such crisis pregnancy centers have no legal obligation to provide pregnant people with accurate information, nor are they required by law to maintain client confidentiality. Bonta said it is of “utmost importance” that pregnant people are given accurate information when given ultrasounds.

“Inaccurate information as to the correct age of a fetus or a potential medical condition can adversely influence a pregnant person’s decision about their pregnancy that drastically changes the course of that person’s life,” said Bonta on Newsom’s state website.

• Assembly Bill 571 (Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, D-Laguna Beach) prohibits insurers from refusing to provide malpractice insurance to providers that offer abortion or contraception care that is lawful in California but not other states.

• Assembly Bill 1646 (Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen, D-Elk Grove) allows for guest rotations in medical residency programs in the state for residents from states that no longer offer reproductive health training due to restrictions or bans.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said that California is now building on its “nation-leading” efforts to protect reproductive health care.